


Chapter 3 alternate ending - B&BB

by cmdonovann



Category: Quantum Break (Video Game)
Genre: (very loosely implied), Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Smut, Trans Character, i mean i hc jack as trans too but that isnt relevant in this particular fic, paul gets fucking WRECKED by both his own emotions and jack's excellence at eating people out, this is awful, trans Paul Serene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2016-05-14
Packaged: 2018-06-08 11:30:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6852847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cmdonovann/pseuds/cmdonovann
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I wanted an excuse to write some Sin™ so I wrote a different version of chapter 3 from one of my other fics (Broken & Brought Back), which can be found here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6797539</p><p>Anyway this is basically all the angst porn from that, plus some ACTUAL porn at the end. Boy do I love Feelings™</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chapter 3 alternate ending - B&BB

...

Now Paul is burned out, exhausted again, and Jack knows a crappy motel bed isn’t gonna do him as much good as his own. So he takes Paul home.

Paul’s apartment is in the residential area near the university, where most of the students live. It’s a decent area, albeit quite loud at night, drunk kids and parties commonplace. Paul doesn’t have a key anymore, lost somewhere in his time missing, so Jack picks the lock. A useful skill; one he learned during his escapades with Paul as teenagers, he remembers.

“Aha,” Jack murmurs as the lock finally clicks open. “See? Aren’t you glad we learned how to do that? It’s not just useful for breaking and entering.”

“You are technically breaking and entering, anyway. You don’t live here,” Paul says tiredly, eyes closed as he leans against the wall. But there’s a spark of humor in his response, and Jack smiles. Paul is starting to seem more like Paul again.

“C’mon, you nerd. You look like you’re gonna pass out.” Jack takes Paul by the arm and leads him into the apartment, locating the light switch and flipping it on.

He’s never been in Paul’s apartment before, and he’s surprised by how homey it feels. Paul has always been an excessively neat and organized person, but there are still photographs hung on some walls, a few sentimental items sitting on side tables or being used as bookends. Everything is warm, from the dark red wood of the dining table in the kitchen to the cream colored sofa in the main room to the warm forest green rug at the front door, which reads WELCOME in thin, light yellow letters. Jack had expected the place to be cold and boring, but it feels more like home than anywhere Jack’s ever been.

Jack looks over at Paul, who’s staring around at the place in confusion, like he’s lost, and it occurs to Jack that Paul hasn’t been here in a long time.

“Hey. You gonna be okay, buddy?” Jack puts a hand on Paul’s shoulder gently, snapping him from his trance.

“Ah. Yes. I’m fine.” Paul shakes his head as if to clear his thoughts and looks at Jack. “Are you-?” He bites his lip. “Are you going to leave?”

Jack takes a step back, surprised. “Oh! I mean, I can if you want me to-”

“No.”

Jack nods. “Are you sure? I understand if you need some alone time to, you know, de-stress or whatever.”

“I’m sure.” Paul looks more serious than he’s ever looked in his life.

“Okay. Alright.” Jack looks around the dimly-lit apartment, unsure of what to do with himself. “Do you want me to order a pizza or something? Your stuff all still works, right? You were only gone for two days, it’s not like they’d cut your cable service or anything. We could watch a movie, you know, chill for a while.”

Paul looks at Jack for a moment, confused, but grateful. Jack’s ability to understand what he needs hasn’t changed.

“Yeah, okay. That’s a good idea.”

“Great. I know you probably don’t wanna talk, so...”

“Yeah.”

“It can wait. We can talk later, if you want.”

“Thank you, Jack.”

“Sure.” The space between them is awkward and the air feels heavy with the silence that follows. Jack is worried, but he's reluctant to say it. Paul is not okay, but he’ll never say that, either. It certainly is a roadblock.

“Alright, I’ll call for pizza,” Jack says abruptly, pulling out his phone and wandering into the kitchen, using the light from his phone as a flash light to find the light switch. Paul collapses on the sofa and closes his eyes with a sigh.

Jack’s voice echoes quietly through the apartment, muffled, as he talks on the phone. Paul tries to focus on the sound, the familiar tone of Jack’s voice, as he closes his eyes and settles onto the sofa. It feels strange, being back here. He knows it’s safe, logically, but it feels deceptive. An illusion of safety, with something underneath the surface waiting to pull him out of the calm and back into the storm.

Suddenly it’s quiet again. Jack has stopped talking. Paul opens his eyes, uncomfortable with the silence, and finds Jack standing above him.

“Wanna move over a little? You’re taking up the whole couch.”

Paul raises his eyebrows, surprised by how calm Jack is. He seems so okay. Nothing has changed for him. Well, plenty of things have changed, otherwise he wouldn’t even be on this continent right now, but still.

“Sure. Did you order pizza?” He tries to keep his voice steady as he speaks, sitting up to make room for Jack. It still feels strange to speak out loud, after so long having no one to talk to but himself and the frozen air.

“Yeah, man, you still like Hawaiian right? Like with pineapple?”

Paul smiles broadly, and it only hurts his bruised face a little. He nods. This almost feels... normal. Like nothing is wrong. Like the world isn’t falling apart.

_Stop. Don’t think about that._

“So. Movie?” Paul says as he looks around, remembering that the TV has a remote, somewhere. It takes him a moment to locate it on a side table, next to a stack of National Geographic magazines.

“Yeah.” Jack sounds unsure again, like there’s something he wants to say. He keeps glancing over at Paul in quick little motions, nervous. Is he going to leave? _He doesn’t want to be here._

_He doesn’t care about you._

Paul shakes his head, willing the thought away.

“Jack?” His voice shakes.

“Mm?” Jack turns to him, eyebrows raised, nothing but gentle concern in his expression. Paul has never been good at saying what he needs, but he desperately needs something right now, some stability, something to reassure him that this world is real and he is safe.

“Please don’t leave.”

Paul feels his heart racing again, afraid. His fingers are twisting the fabric at the edge of his shirt, trying to find something in the feeling to ground him. He can’t meet Jack’s gaze, squeezing his eyes shut.

Suddenly he feels a hand on his shoulder, warm, sliding up the side of his neck to his face, a thumb stroking along his cheek. All other thoughts are drowned out by the sensation.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Jack says, his voice low and quiet, understanding. “Unless you want me to.”

Paul opens his eyes and looks at Jack, his best friend, the only person he really trusts, the one thing that can make him feel safe. He feels his hands still shaking, his heart still racing, his breath still caught in his throat. But he’s safe here; nothing is going to hurt him here, even if he lets his guard down for a moment.

So he cries.

Jack looks alarmed at first, and Paul feels terrible for doing this to him, but there is so much fear built up inside his body that this is the only way it can get out. He crumples, feeling the tears falling down his face, and brings one hand up to hide behind.

“Paul?” Jack doesn’t seem to know how to react. His hand is still on Paul’s cheek, and Paul leans into it.

“I’m sorry,” Paul whispers, not sure what else to say. “I’m sorry, this is all my fault and I’m sorry. I did this to myself.”

“Whoa, hey. What the hell?” Jack puts his other hand on Paul’s shoulder, looks him in the eye seriously. “What is going on? I can understand some of this. I know being stuck for months in a time fracture or whatever probably isn’t a cake walk, but I’m really lost. What happened to you there? I know all this-” Jack gestures at the many marks he’d covered with bandages “-didn’t come from just time travel. So what the hell happened to you? What are you so afraid of?” He lets out a breath he had been holding in, his shoulders falling. “I’ve never seen you so scared before, Paul. It’s freaking me out. I’m worried about you.”

Paul hears Jack’s words, but he can’t respond. His head is spinning and he’s shaking. Everything feels so intense suddenly; the buzz of the light bulb in the lamp nearby, the warmth of the air in the little apartment, Jack’s hands on his shoulders. It’s like his brain has screeched to a halt, unable to process everything at once. He clears his throat once, twice, sniffs, runs a hand across his cheek to stop the tears.

There has to be some way to explain it to Jack. But when he imagines what he saw there, the only thoughts his mind can offer are _run, hide, panic, escape._ He can’t make Jack understand that. He can barely understand it himself.

After what feels like hours, he finds words.

“In the future,” he says, voice barely a whisper, “it was a fracture, like Will said. Time stopped everywhere. Everyone frozen. But...” he feels his throat closing up, making it harder to breathe; he fights it. “But I wasn’t alone there. There were... I don’t know what they were. But they were violent.”

“What do you mean? Other people who weren’t affected by the fracture? Like us?”

“They weren’t human,” Paul shudders, blinks away the image floating before his eyes, and focuses on Jack instead. “Like something out of a nightmare.” He looks at Jack seriously. “If the fracture is going to happen in the future, those things will be there.”

Jack takes a deep breath; he seems to be trying to figure out how to respond.

“Okay. We have to talk to Will about this, too. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a very not good thing to me, monsters running around while the rest of the world is frozen. That’s definitely not normal. Not that any of this is normal, but you know what I mean,” Jack says. He shrugs. He seems to be dealing with this a lot better than most would, Paul thinks. “If we’re gonna try to fix this, we need all the information we can get, okay?”

Paul nods. He doesn’t know what to say. His heart is still pounding, wondering if those things could find their way into this world. If they existed in the future, who’s to say they aren’t already here somewhere, waiting?

Paul closes his eyes, tries to shut down the thought. That is not a possibility he wants to consider.

“Paul?” Jack’s voice pulls him from his worry.

“Yes?”

“Are you okay?” Jack frowns, rethinking. “That’s a stupid question, never mind. You’re not okay, Paul, we both know that. And I know you have a weird way of dealing with shit, but if there’s anything I can do-” He leaves the sentence open, like he’s waiting for some kind of answer.

Paul thinks for a moment that he might start crying again, but he blinks the tears away quickly. He does not deserve Jack’s kindness. He’s the reason they’re both in this mess now anyway.

But he’s also selfish, and afraid, and god, he needs reassurance right now.

“Just... stay,” Paul whispers, leaning his forehead against Jack’s. He’s never been good at admitting things like this. Never been good at showing emotion, letting his guard down... it’s even harder now, after all that’s happened. Every fiber of his being wants to curl up somewhere dark and never move again. But maybe this is better.

“I just don’t want to be alone.” The words are barely audible, his voice breaking, but Jack seems to understand. He pulls Paul into a tight hug, and it’s like the air is cleared. Everything feels just a little better, lighter, calmer.

“I’m not going anywhere, Paul.”

Paul almost breaks down again. God, he is so in love. He always has been; Jack has always been the only person who can make him really _feel_ something. It occurs to him, for a moment, how fucking _grateful_ he is that Jack is here, that he cares, that he’s holding him. Paul’s hands slide down Jack’s back, resting just above his hip, fingers tracing anxious circles in the fabric of Jack’s shirt.

“Thank you,” he whispers, voice muffled as he buries his face in Jack’s shoulder. “I love you.”

Jack’s grip on him tightens to the point that it almost hurts. Paul’s bruised ribs protest, and he holds his breath.

“I know,” Jack says, his voice serious. “I love you too.”

That does it. Paul breaks. The tears are flowing again, and he leans back from the hug to rub at his eyes. Jack keeps one arm around him as he pulls away, looking at him with an endless amount of affection in those bright blue eyes. Then, when Paul is still, he leans in to kiss him.

It’s a gentle kiss, cautious, but Paul feels it warm in his chest like a hot drink, filling him with a certainty he hasn’t felt in a long time. This was what he needed. His mind connects back to all the times they’ve done this before; the time in high school when they got drunk together and things got carried away, the times when they were kids playing truth or dare in their hideout in the woods, all the secrets and love shared between them for years. It holds him in this world, grounds him. This is safe; Jack is his safety. Everything is right.

Jack releases him, strokes the side of his face with one hand. “You okay?” Paul nods quickly, smiles; words are failing him.

“Better than okay,” he says, a grin splitting his face. It hurts, but he doesn’t care. He leans back in to kiss Jack again.

He can feel Jack smiling against his lips, and his heart soars. Everything is good. His hands slide under Jack’s shirt, lifting it at the bottom, feels Jack’s skin warm under his fingers. Jack’s hand is at the nape of Paul’s neck, fingers curling gently in his hair. Paul’s eyes are closed, and every part of him focuses on Jack, on the sensation of being close to him, touching him, breathing him in. All other thoughts are drowned out, fear and pain temporarily forgotten.

Jack is running his fingers through Paul’s hair as they kiss, and Paul lets out a soft noise of pleasure. Jack takes the opportunity to deepen the kiss, tongue finding its way into Paul’s mouth, and Paul makes another sound, his brain starting to shut down completely and just _feel._ Slowly, carefully, Jack turns Paul, pushes him down onto the sofa, one arm still around him, holding him.

The kiss breaks for a moment, and Paul opens his eyes to see Jack staring down at him, a flush of pink across his cheeks and a lazy half-smile on his face.

“Hey,” Jack says, pausing. “Are you okay with this? I don’t wanna, uh, take advantage of you or anything, so if you don’t wanna do this-”

“Shh.” Paul laughs a little. “This is perfect.” He’s lightheaded from exhilaration, from the feeling of Jack so close to him. All worries are forgotten. “Jack, you make me feel-” He closes his eyes, unsure how to express exactly what it is he’s feeling. Warm, safe, happy, relieved, almost giddy.

“Perfect.”

He opens his eyes to look up at Jack, hoping his expression can convey what his words cannot. Jack smiles and it’s like a sunrise, everything warm and bright.

Paul’s hands are still at Jack’s hips, halfway underneath his shirt, and he sweeps his fingers upward, pulling at Jack’s shirt. Jack helps, ducking his head out of it and discarding the shirt on the floor.

“I love you,” Paul whispers, leaning up to kiss Jack again. His fingers stroke gently down Jack’s spine, nails ghosting along his skin, and Jack shivers.

“I know,” he murmurs against Paul’s lips. His voice is low and breathy, and Paul feels it in every inch of his body. Fuck, he feels like he’s going to _melt._

“Jack-” he starts, but Jack is already way ahead of him. He pulls off Paul’s shirt, carefully, and pauses when he sees the huge bruise he’d forgotten was there. Paul freezes, suddenly nervous, until Jack leans down and places a row of the gentlest kisses from Paul’s bruised hip up to his ribs to his collarbone. Paul lets out a long sigh and snakes his hand up to Jack’s neck, stroking his hair.

“You’re fucking perfect,” he says quietly. Jack says nothing; he takes Paul’s hand and kisses each of his bandaged knuckles, slowly and carefully. Paul feels like he might start crying again from the feeling of pure _love_ he has for Jack welling up in his chest.

He settles instead for taking Jack’s face in his hands and kissing him passionately, pulling him close, feeling Jack’s heartbeat against his with their chests pressed together. They remain that way for a while, just enjoying the closeness, Jack’s tongue exploring Paul’s mouth, Paul’s hands trailing down Jack’s sides, tracing shapes into his spine with his fingertips.

Then Jack pulls away, slightly flustered, a smirk on his face. “Okay, I can’t do this anymore. I’m gonna have to go down on you, you’re just too hot,” he says, an almost joking tone in his voice.

“What-?” Paul doesn’t have much time to process Jack’s puzzling comment, because Jack is tugging off his sweatpants and suddenly his mouth is on Paul and holy _fuck_ he forgot how _good_ Jack is at this. He lets out a high-pitched noise of surprise.

“Jack!”

Jack looks up at him, pauses, raises one eyebrow. “Are you saying you want me to stop?” His voice sounds like a challenge.

“No? Why are you-?” Paul’s face feels hot, and he knows he’s probably blushing like an embarrassed kid.

“You deserve it,” Jack murmurs, and it sends chills down Paul’s spine. Jack gives him a wicked smirk, licks his lips, and returns to what he was doing.

It only takes a few minutes before Paul’s brain has turned to mush and the only thing he can do is moan. Jack is too good at this, his tongue swirling hypnotizing circles, his fingers picking up the slack where his mouth can’t reach. Paul is shaking, his head thrown back, breathing in little whimpering gasps.

“God, Jack-” he moans, twisting his fingers into Jack’s hair, holding on for dear life. “Jack! Please!” He’s incoherent, feels tears running down his face. Jack keeps going, steady, increasing his pace just slightly.

“Fuck-” He’s so close to the edge. His whole body is shaking; his fingers tighten in Jack’s hair and he lets out a breathy moan. “Jack! Ah!” It’s like a blackout; everything in his head shuts down and pleasure is the only thing left. He’s distantly aware of a sound, and as he comes down from the high he realizes it’s him, whimpering, but he’s too blissed out to care.

After what feels like years, he returns to earth, and Jack is laying half on top of him, stroking his hair.

“You alright there?” he asks, tone light and playful. He wipes a tear from Paul’s face. Paul hums a sound of approval and nods. He’s still floating somewhere in the stratosphere, but he can feel Jack there with him, and he’s safe.

“So I guess I owe you one now?” Paul says when he catches his breath after a few moments.

“Yeah, you can buy me a milkshake or something tomorrow and we’ll call it even,” Jack offers, and Paul laughs.

“Sure. Milkshakes. That sounds nice.” He frowns. “Wait, didn’t you order a pizza?”

Jack looks surprised. “Yeah, shit. I forgot. Wonder what’s taking so long?” He chuckles. “Not that I mind.” He raises one eyebrow suggestively at Paul and licks his lips again.

“Stop that!”

“Make me.”

**Author's Note:**

> ...............  >:3c
> 
> anyways im garbage, throw me in a fucking dumpster and put me in a landfill, i’m the literal actual worst
> 
> bye
> 
> (also thanks G for your prompting me to write awful shit like this, you're a champ)


End file.
